


Stronger than you know

by myrish_lace



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 11:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10853043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrish_lace/pseuds/myrish_lace
Summary: Jon Snow has been able to spend some time getting to know his chemistry class partner, Sansa Stark. But when she shows up in his costume shop, looking for advice, he's not sure what to expect.





	Stronger than you know

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amymel86](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amymel86/gifts).



> Thanks to Amymel for the tumblr prompt that inspired this fic! Sophie Turner's quote about rooting for "girls in dresses who are intellectually very strong" factored into this too. Hope you enjoy!

Jon really didn't appreciate his job at the costume hire shop until that one particular Saturday. 

The job was fine, as far as it went, but he didn’t exactly have a golden tongue when it came to the customers. Jon usually breathed a sigh of relief when the street lamps came on and he could flip the cardboard sign on the door from Open to Closed.

But his night had just gotten a whole lot better, and more nerve-wracking, because Sansa Stark was fidgeting in front of the counter – gorgeous, sweet Sansa Stark, whom he’d always admired from a distance, and who was, miraculously, his chemistry partner this semester. Thank goodness she didn’t hold that Bunsen burner incident against him.

And since she was kind enough to drive him home after class, he’d also been able to help her through the breakup that past February with Joffrey. It had been tough. The Baratheons were a powerful family, and Joffrey had done everything he could to “make Sansa regret being a stuck-up bitch.” Sansa, naturally, held her chin high and glided past him in the hallways, and ultimately, the breakup blew over.

Jon had one indelible memory from that cold month – holding Sansa when she suddenly broke down and cried in the car after a particularly rough day of Joffrey’s mocking. She’d tried to apologize for ruining his shirt. He’d simply held her against his chest, until her sobs lessened and ceased.

“It’s hard, to pretend to be so strong,” she’d said. “To keep up the front.” She looked up at Jon briefly with red-rimmed eyes. “Thank you for keeping my secret.”

 _Always_ , he’d wanted to tell her, but his heart was in his throat, so he’d only nodded. She’d pressed her hand briefly to his chest before saying goodbye. He’d almost stumbled getting out of the car, and spent a sleepless night dwelling on the softness of her hair.

But it was only one moment, nothing more. He didn’t want to be a rebound guy. And more importantly, he valued their friendship. He could be content with the way she nudged him in class when his eyes started to close, or the code names they’d invented for Professor Luwin as he droned on about catalysts and precipitates. She never mentioned that night in the car again, and he didn’t press her about it.

He only got to be near her for an hour every day, and that was enough for h–

“Jon, um, am I bothering you? You’re still open, right?” Sansa was biting her lip, and Jon could have kicked himself. _Damnit Snow, she’s going to think_   _she’s annoying you._

“Yes, sorry, Sansa, we are, how can I help you?” Could he _sound_ more like an employee at a fast food chain? What was wrong with him?

Sansa smiled. “I hope so. Marg is throwing a costume party, a ‘badass women’ bash, and I know...I’m supposed to want a Black Widow costume, or some sort of armor, to really be ‘on theme’, but I just don’t feel like that’s me, and I don’t think you need to wear armor to be strong, you can kick ass in a dress, you know?”

Thank god, a topic he could actually talk about, he thought.  “Yeah you definitely don’t, I mean there are a million examples of strong women in dresses, like Arwen and Galadriel from Lord of the Rings and Eowyn who was a shieldmaiden of Rohan and–“

_You’re babbling, you dork, stop it! Since when do you babble?_

Sansa tilted her head, considering him. “You know, I always wondered what else was going on behind those eyes of yours in chemistry class. Now I know.” She smirked, but her voice was kind, and Jon felt himself relax a little. He showed her around the shop, and she gravitated to the Eowyn costume right away. It was one of the shop’s most elaborate ensembles, and he did not squeak, exactly, when she came out of the dressing room with her red hair around her shoulders, but he did make some kind of coughing noise.

The dark green velvet was beautiful against her pale skin, and she had the height and grace to pull off the long, sweeping sleeves of the gown. The empire waist showed off her slender figure and Jon didn’t need to look in a mirror to know that he was blushing.

“Will anyone know who I am?”

Jon was indignant. “Of course they will.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Anyone who hasn’t been inhaling Lord of the Rings since the age of five?”

“Um...” Jon sighed. This was why he wasn’t nearly as good as the other workers – Pyp, or Grenn, or even Edd, for that matter. He was a terrible liar. “Well...maybe not.”

To his surprise, the ghost of a smile passed over Sansa’s face. “Well, I don’t mind being a little mysterious. What was Eowyn like?”

“She was a fierce defender of her house. She went into battle and killed a witch king and saved an army. She fell in love after the war and married a man who loved and respected her for who she was.”

Sansa was standing very close to him now. He was pretty sure he could drown in her blue eyes.

“What was his name?”

Jon swallowed. “Faramir.”

“How did they fall in love?”

“She met him in the Houses of Healing after the war. They were both hurt badly, and they’d both lost people close to them.”

Sansa looked down. “So they took care of each other.”

“Yes.”

Sansa plucked a thread off his shirt. “Maybe comforted each other a few times.”

“Yeah.”

“I – I never really thanked you, Jon. For what you did for me.”

He couldn’t help it, he touched her cheek. Her eyes fluttered shut. She put a hand on his waist, and he took that as an invitation to pull her closer. She rested her head on his chest, like she’d done that night in the car.  Jon thought he could die in that moment and be happy with the weight of her in his arms.

Sansa toyed with the buttons on his shirt. Her head was still tucked against his chest. “Tell me something Faramir would have said to Eowyn, Jon.”

“Um...”

She nudged him in the ribs. “If you’re going to pretend not to have those books memorized...”      

“Sansa, I-“ He did, of course he did, but he knew if he recited the lines it would pretty much be him telling her that he loved her. He was terrified of what that confession might do.

“Please, Jon.” Her voice was almost a whisper, and he couldn’t deny her this, just like he couldn’t deny her anything else. He took a deep breath and brought up the words from memory, murmuring them into her hair.

“All my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny. Eowyn, Eowyn, White Lady of Rohan, in this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure.”

She let out a gentle sigh, and tilted her head up. When he moved to kiss her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and when their lips met it was soft and sweet and hungry and perfect.

***

Sansa didn’t make it to the party that night, and Jon didn’t lock up the store till hours later. They left hand in hand, when the moon was high in the sky, well on their way to falling in love, and never looked back.


End file.
